Speaking ahead of this week’s John Deere Classic, where he is the defending champion, DeChambeau described the decision as ‘unfortunate’.

“It's just a reference tool,” he said. “I talked to John Bodenhamer [the USGA’s senior managing director of Championships & Governance] about it quite a bit and we had a great conversation. The USGA has been really responsive. We've had fantastic talks. I'm honestly look forward to working with them on helping make the rules better, more clear.”

DeChambeau added that it was never his intention to ‘skirt by the rules or anything like that’.

“It was just a device I thought had been used for a long time in different fields,” he continued. “It shouldn't be an issue. It's not a distance measuring device. It's just a referencing tool.”

“I'm not trying to push the game in any direction,” he added. “I'm trying to utilise every tool in my brain to be able to reference information and get information in a way that I can utilise it to the best of my ability.”